Mentoring Programs

Mentors are an essential piece in helping our youth during their educational journey!

Have the chance to change a life: Mentoring works!

There are many phases we go through during our lifetime, and through those phases we sometimes come across rare individuals that impact our lives in a special way. If we think back to our childhood I am sure we can all remember someone we looked up to as a role model or mentor. A teacher, youth leader, a neighbor, friend, or relative; someone we always knew was there if we needed them. Today that mentor could be you! Mentoring is a great way to contribute to the life of a child, a way to become engaged in making a difference and impacting the community in a positive light.

The MATCH Program is a school based- mentoring program that connects participating students in the Douglas County School System with caring adults. We are looking for adults who want to make a difference by giving just one hour a week of their time to mentor. After submitting an application and successfully completing a background check, candidates attend a brief training on school policies, updated mentoring techniques, tutoring ideas, and more. Once training is complete and mentors have been cleared of their background check; mentors are able to select the school of their choice to mentor at and attend a school orientation with the designated counselor. The school matches each mentor with a student and once the student has returned the signed parent permission form they can then meet and begin establishing a mentoring relationship

Any student enrolled in the Douglas County School System has the opportunity to be involved in the MATCH program. We provide mentoring grade levels, Elementary, Middle, and High School. To ensure safety and provide the best services to our students, all participating students are required to have parent permission form signed, dated, and returned to their schools counselor. Once that has been completed mentoring can begin.

Mentors spend an hour per week with student mentees at the school doing age-appropriate activities that include reading, tutoring, educational activities, talking about jobs or researching colleges. The program goals are to support students to increase school attendance, improve grades, and test scores. Mentoring helps each mentee feel supported in life and school. They know someone is coming to their school to see them! Current mentors often say they get more out of the mentoring relationship than their mentee.

Mentor training are offered once a month at various locations. For more information please email Mitzi.teal@dcssga.org or call 770.651.2039 The MATCH mentoring program is a collaboration between Communities In Schools of Douglas County and the Douglas County School System. The program is funded through individual donations and grant funds from United Way Metro Atlanta.